On Living in the Moment

Generally speaking I found the talk about “living in the moment” to be complete and utter babble. The idea that happiness is connected somehow to the moment makes sense only in situations that are somehow pleasant.

A great deal of my own sense of happiness in life has come from a reflection on the past and my attempt to make sense of struggles and suffering that I’ve had as well as a looking forward to the future in hope of better times.

That being said, the living in the moment bit has come to make sense to me over the past few days- namely, I came to realize I must seek Christ in each moment.

Christ here, of course, is far beyond the immediate person of Jesus that we know. Yes, yes, I may be spilling into territory that some will damn as heretical, but I may well be a heretic; heretic seems to often refer to people who don’t agree with one’s preconceived notions.

Well, God Himself may be a heretic by that definition.

Anyway, to the point- “living in the moment” makes sense only in the context of seeking Christ or experiencing an intimate awareness of Christ in that moment; others might be experiencing a sense of the Buddha-nature in that moment.

It’s difficult to explain the shift in awareness that takes place with this, but there’s a noticeable “refocusing,” and suddenly, I am HERE, really HERE.

Ordinary things like chores become important because they’re now referential to being in the EXPERIENCE of the Divine.

Attempting to “live in the moment” outside of a reference to the Divine or some such placeholder ultimately results in attempting to “live in the moment of one’s ego projections.” It’s a dismal and sad place to be.

But this new paradigm, this reference to the Christ, well. I could get used to this.

This is an immense grace that God has bestowed upon me. Such a revelation as this is so incredibly important that I cannot overstate it.

At the same time, it’s virtually impossible to tell how much my own efforts of prayer, meditation, and seeking have contributed to the current results. I’m not one to suggest abandoning introspection or deep thinking- no, my friends, I encourage everyone to maintain a balanced approach.

The one concerning thing for me is being tossed around the various ideas and paradigms that exist, but at the end of the day, they’re all about theosis, about being united once-and-for-all with GOD. So anything that distracts us from the ultimate goal has to be abandoned in so far as it is practical to abandon it (in this case, I’m speaking strictly in terms of systems, dogmas, and so on) until we can later return to them and see them clearly with the help of the Divine.

It’s a strange situation that in order to really grasp the Holy Scriptures, one has to almost already be enlightened. It does make one question what the purpose of the Scriptures is beyond simply verifying the experiences of theosis.

So as this Christmas continues, I bid welcome to the Incarnation of the Christ within my own spirit.